Welcome to North Carolina, folks. And what a trip it’s been. Dear God, the drive. Just remembering the drive makes me want to break out in hives… especially since I have to do the whole thing again in just a few days. (Eliza, I saw that you’re traveling this weekend… I’m sending lots of love your way! Hope Teva behaves a lot better than J!!!)

It didn’t start out so bad. To be honest, he fussed for about five seconds and then fell asleep maybe 20 minutes after we hit the road. He slept for a little over an hour and when he woke up, he played happily. I didn’t want to press my luck, so I pulled off at the Gaffney, South Carolina outlet malls to let J stretch his legs and get myself some lunch. (And possibly some outlet goodies) This is a decision which haunts me.

Let me paint the picture for you…

Does that make sense? Let me spell it out. Stopping in Gaffney = the devil. We spent an hour at the Outlets. Had lunch, rented a stroller (which J HATED) and did some shopping… for J. I put J back in the car feeling pretty warm and fuzzy about myself and how well J was handling the trip. I even went so far as to relax a little and think to myself that all my stress was pointless because J was AWESOME at roadtrips.

And then we left Gaffney.

This?

Became this…

in about 2.4 seconds.

Honestly. We had to stop FIVE times between Gaffney and my parent’s house. It’s only about a two hour drive. And we didn’t stop for seconds at a time. We shopped at Babies R Us in Charlotte. We spent twenty minutes at an Arby’s in the middle of nowhere. Dear God, we spent twenty minutes at a truck stop. It was my worst nightmare. Everytime we got back in the car, he started to shake. He mastered turning purple. He cried so hard I thought he would be hoarse the next day.

And to top it all off? He’s still not sleeping. It’s now Thursday and although he did take a nap, finally, today, it was only with me holding him. He didn’t poop all day on Wednesday so today he made up for it by going through a gazillion diapers and now his butt is all red and raw and he cries when he has to get his diaper changed. He went to the bathroom so many times that there was blood in one of the diapers. You wanna be scared? See blood in a diaper. (And no, he’s not still on that medication.)

With all of that you’d think I was having a bad time… but I swear I’m not! I love coming to see my parents because, let’s face it, there are few other places you can go and still have people take care of you. For instance? My mom is currently upstairs with J so I have a few minutes to myself. Oh, and food? Taken care of. *sigh* The good life. Plus, I get to see my (almost on Monday) 94 year old Granny playing with my son… and that is absolutely priceless.

Brief wrap up… drive? Bad. Arrival? Good. Free food? Good. And future plans where I see Doodah and my niece and nephew tomorrow, two best friends on Saturday and some E-Friends on Sunday? Good.

Overall, good outweighs bad. But I am still dreading the return of the Hulk on my way home.

Comments

There really is nothing better than having your momma take care of you and baby! Sorry to hear about the rough trip. Enjoy your time there and hopefully the trip home will be better!

~*Jess*~ April 30th, 2010 @ 1:50 am

Having baby around your parents is priceless. I hope your drive back is better. Enjoy the pampering!

Diana April 30th, 2010 @ 1:55 am

Sorry it's not been so much fun on the road. Hopefully once you guys get settled there it will be better. Maybe he'll be used to it by the trip back?

🙁

Kiki April 30th, 2010 @ 5:15 am

Mommas are the best. Simply the best. Enjoy the va-cay!Good luck with the drive back!

Elis Momma April 30th, 2010 @ 12:58 pm

My advice…Get as far as you can without stopping. Once you make the first stop it goes downhill from there. We have driven from TN to MI (9hours drive time)and MI to VA (8.5 hours drive time)and that is the best thing we have done. We can sometimes make it 4 hours before we have to stop. We definately make up the lack of stops in the first half during the second. Good luck on the way home.

KLZ April 30th, 2010 @ 1:00 pm

I have seen blood in the diaper and it will stop your heart. God bless you for being able to drive after that!

Samantha April 30th, 2010 @ 3:33 pm

So sorry the drive was bad! (I feel like I gave you horrible advice… 🙂

Enjoying spending time with your family and I hope the drive back is better.

liz May 2nd, 2010 @ 4:48 pm

It's amazing how our children change when they leave their town. I'm glad you are optimistic about your trip; I always look forward to getting back home.

I hope the car screaming stuff doesn't last. I had that BAD when my oldest was an infant. Hysterics to the point of vomitting.

Good luck and enjoy the rest of your visit.

Raising Madison May 3rd, 2010 @ 4:31 pm

As much as I feel for you, I am so glad for your brutal honesty. We are taking our first road trip with M in three weeks. Its only a 3 hour drive, but I'm nervous and knowing that you survived makes me feel better. 🙂

Eliza May 3rd, 2010 @ 7:52 pm

Oh geeze! This was hilarious….but zomg sounds horrific. I wonder why he was freaking out in the car???? And the blood in the diaper…scary. Sounds kinda like J "lost his schmidt", no?

Teva did pretty well, although on the drive home she screamed for almost two hours. (It was a five hour drive). It made every muscle tense up. I'm sure that's what happened to your back!

Pam May 7th, 2010 @ 6:01 pm

Lol. I used to live about five minutes from the Gaffney outlets. I would take my daughter there and she would totally turn in a monster afterwards too. Small world.